MAD has unveiled plans for a towering village of apartment blocks beside the Huangshan Mountains in eastern China.

Inspired by the topographical layers of the landscape, the buildings will have organically shaped floor plates and will emerge from amongst the treetops on a site beside the Taiping Lake.

The high-density village features low-rise residences that echo the contours of the surrounding topography and offer unequalled access to one of China’s landscapes.

The site of verdant scenery and limestone cliffs have long inspired artists and offered sheltered spaces for contemplation and reflection, contributing to its UNESCO Heritage status. Composed in deference to the local topography, the village provides housing, a hotel and communal amenities organized in a linked configuration. As its form evokes the geology of the region, the village blurs the boundaries between the geometries of architecture and nature.

For residents, the apartments will be a quiet retreat – all have spacious balconies which overlook the lake. Communal amenities and walking paths encourage residents to explore the landscape. Each floor is unique and accessed from shared social spaces, creating a seamless balance between private and public spaces. The same serene design sensibility of natural environment extends to the interiors, with the use of local materials and the incorporation of plants and greenery enhancing comfort and well-being, while simultaneously setting up a closer connection with local culture...

Margot Krasojevic's latest proposal, a mesh shelter that takes the concept of snow caves and applies it to an artificial structure, is built for an eminently practical purpose: a built emergency shelter for climbers and others caught in extreme conditions.

The elaborate, high tech and naturally contoured structure is as much a thought experiment as it is a serious architectural proposal, with the carbon fibre mesh acting as a snow-catcher, forming a frame for a large snow drift. The captured snow works as both building material and insulation, allowing for the creation of a shelter of several rooms. Inside sits a wooden frame suspended from the mesh and attached to the landscape by climbing ropes, which avoid freezing by swaying. This frame can have canvases attached to it, and contains cell-like modules that would act as sleeping areas...

Despite its distinctly geometric form, the Dune House could almost be mistaken for one of the sandy formations that surround it. The home, which is situated on the small island of Terschelling in the northern Netherlands, is clad in a silvery natural wood that easily blends with the sand and windswept grass. The neutral palette chosen by Dutch architect Marc Koehler gives the impression that the home appeared from the earth and was carved by the wind, sea and sun.

A green-energy pod that gives you total independance, anywhere you go.

Next week, at Vienna’s Pioneers Festival, attendees will be the first to lay their eyes on the new, stylish “smart home” that allows you to live completely off the grid. It’s called the “Ecocapsule,” and it’s a wind and solar-powered 14 x 7 x 7-foot pod that gives you total independence. The Ecocapsule hitches to the back of your car and, if it’s electric, will keep it charged with its 9700 Watt-hour battery...

Interface Studio Architects (ISA)’s LEED Platinum Roxbury E+ townhouses are paving the way toward more energy-efficient housing in Boston. Completed in collaboration with local developer Urbanize, the energy-positive townhouses were created as part of the city’s E+ Green Building program, an initiative to pilot net-zero energy housing prototypes. The energy-positive homes include many green technologies, such as solar panels, green roofs, rainwater harvesting, and triple-glazed windows.

Following their completion of Gammel Hellerup High School’s Multi-purpose hall in 2013, Bjarke Ingels Group has added a 1,400 square meter building for cultural activities. The new two-level addition provides students with generous spaces for creative learning, while increasing the capacity of the school.

Located between the multi-purpose hall and football fields, the new arts building connects the sports areas with the existing educational facilities in a continuous flow. By placing parts of the new building beneath the football pitch, the students are able to walk through the sunken sports hall at the center of the school’s courtyard, to the classrooms, cafeteria, and out to the main entrance at street level. The roof of the new arts building extend the school’s existing football fields into a green carpet that serves as informal seating to overlook sports events.

Lang Architecture designed this two-story, model residence in the Hudson Woods community where 26 architect-designed homes will be crafted from locally-sourced, sustainable materials. The 2,800 square foot house rests within 131 acres of forest in the Catskills/Hudson River Valley area and features a flipped floor plan.

The Obrenovac First Elementary School is the first established school in Belgrade, almost 200 years old. During the two centuries pupils of this school had no adequate indoor space for physical education and sports activities.

From the very beginning the idea was to design low budget, energy efficient and sustainable building with no unnecessary details.

As Obrenovac Municipality is close to the river Sava banks, it is under the influence of the underground water. This was the crucial technical problem which had to be resolved from the first preliminary design phase. Through design process, the solution for these challenges has been successfully found by designing the waterproof concrete hull, 5 meters deep in the ground, just few centimeters over the highest underground water level. This concept provided some kind of waterproof box, as boat sink, for all premises inside.

When Facebook approached famed Canadian-American architect Frank Gehry to design their new headquarters in Menlo Park, California, they asked for a simple building without a heavy design. And while the building might look pretty conventional from down below, 70-feet up on the roof is something light on the environment and the spirits: a 9-acre garden.

The building, called MPK 20, is topped by a parkland with verdant green fields of grass, over 400 trees, and a lot of trails. “It’s a half mile loop,”says Lori Goler, head of human resources and recruiting. “It gives space to think.”

The true purpose of the twin houses is clear: stringent environmental regulations and a contemporary concern for comfort demand a plethora of mechanical and electrical equipment and a highly insulated envelope. But with a great glass sliding door opening each unit to the breeze, the houses offer their temporary residents a taste of something like Thoreau's rougher-hewn Walden cabin, whose simplicity and intimate scale fostered his sense of connection to the environment. In their outward appearance, the Mirror Houses do little to blend in with their surroundings—the opposite, in fact—but, from the inside, the building seems almost to disappear, registering only as a frame for the view. “There but not there,” one might say...

Oklahoma firm Kinslow, Keith & Todd has presented its vision to build a skyscraper shaped like a tornado on top of a Tulsa parking garage.

The towering structure, proposed within the region known as Tornado Alley, is designed to include a museum dedicated to weather, a storm research centre, a revolving rooftop bar and restaurant, and a grassy roof.

Lighting would also be added so that the whole building would appear to be slowly spinning to passing drivers.

Kinslow, Keith & Todd came up with the design after being asked by Tulsa People magazine for explore ways to rejuvenate the downtown area of the US city.

This residential property in the Netherlands has been designed to comply with strict regulations that limit the height of the single storey structure. Completed by Koen Olthuis of Dutch architecture practice waterstudio.nl, the property utilizes additional floor space at a subterranean level, providing extra surface within the limited dimensions of the building envelope.

The windows of this art gallery in South Korea's Paju district are fritted with a pattern that regulates views of the interior, and creates the illusion of fog around the edges of the building.

The varying proportions of these spaces, as well as their varying lighting conditions, present a range of opportunities for displays of sculpture, paintings or multimedia installations.

"Each solid gallery box is thought of as a pavilion that is either suspended above the landscape or placed on top of it," said the architects. "The solid boxes capture shadows of adjacent trees while the transparent boxes reflect the distant landscape."

Switzerland's striking natural landscape offers many picture-perfect views – but Gautschi Lenzin Schenker Architekten's 'House in Rombach' was designed to make particular use of its bucolic setting. Located in a suburb at the edge of Aarau, the capital of Aargau canton, the area's green vistas took centre stage in the design process. Subsequently, the team focussed on creating a generous top floor, from which the owners and their guests can take in the area's picturesque scenery...

Michael Green Architecture (MGA) and DVVD has teamed up with REI France developments to propose the world’s tallest wood building in Paris. The carbon-neutral proposal, developed as part of the city’s innovative Réinventer Paris competition, aims to alleviate the city’s urban housing challenges.

“Our goal is that through innovation, youthful social contact and overall community building, we have created a design that becomes uniquely important to Paris,” said Michael Green, Principal of MGA. “Just as Gustave Eiffel shattered our conception of what was possible a century and a half ago, this project can push the envelope of wood innovation with France in the forefront. The Pershing Site is the perfect moment for Paris to embrace the next era of architecture.”

A modular greenhouse/storage shed combination is the result of a collaborative effort between two Finnish companies: Avanto Architects and Kekkilä Garden.The versatile structure of wood and glass can be enlarged or contracted based on the owners’ needs. The covered portion is ideal for storage, while plants can be grown in the glass-enclosed atrium. The structure can even serve as an “outdoor” bedroom. The Garden Shed Rest model includes a covered patio between the shed and greenhouse- thanks to a simple setup and elegance of design, the possibilities are endless...

Great news comes from NYC for Heatherwick Studio architecture practice whose design of the Pier 55 a Floating Park in New York City has gotten it’s green light from the city authorities. The initiative for the park which is to serve as a public park and performance space on a pier in Hudson River was headlined by legendary fashion designer Diane von Furstenberg and her husband businessman Barry Diller.

The power-couple is to donate $113 million to the construction, which in fact is the biggest private donation the New York City in history. Construction is set to begin in 2016, the cost is estimated on $130 million in total, with city of New York donating 17 million to the project. The state of New York will also donate $18 million for the construction of the accompanying esplanade designed to lead into the pier.

After the devastating earthquakes in 2010 and 2011 that hit New Zealand, the city of Christchurch has launched a Recovery Plan in aid of redeveloping of city’s centre, which was severely damaged. At the core of the program is the New Central Library (NCL) designed by schmidt hammer lassen architects.

Atelier Ars is the architecture firm of Alejandro Guerrero Gutierrez and Andrea Soto Morfin, based in Guadalajara in central Mexico, where the team has recently completed an extension to the Design Innovation and Workshop Building (TID) at the ITESO University.The TID Annex accommodates a workshop for architecture and design students whilst providing contemporary spaces and a well-ventilated environment. The façades consists of wooden louvers in order to generate a natural flow of air through the gaps, while the use of a steel structure with a wooden floor communicates the character of the workshop well. On the ground floor, the facades can open, giving the students a practical, airy and breathable space to work in.

Anderson Anderson Architecture recently completed a prototype for an energy-positive relocatable classroom that can produce four times more energy than it needs.

The solar-powered modular classroom prototype was developed as part of the Aloha State’s plans to replace 10,000 portable classrooms over the next 10 years—currently a quarter of Hawaiian students study in poor-quality, energy-inefficient portable units. The energy-positive prototype offers an optimized educational environment and is designed to maximize energy conservation while producing electricity and water.

Thanks to reporter Wes Thomas for this pleasantly innovative news from Hawaii's Department of Education. The solar-powered modular units will replace older portable classrooms over the next decade. The new classrooms are designed to be energy efficient as they produce electricity and water. Great idea. Aloha, Russ.

Designed by Foster + Partners, the new city hall for Buenos Aires has recently been unveiled where it will house the mayor and 1,500 employees. It takes advantage of its abundant green setting in parque patricios and hopes to become a catalyst for regenerating the local neighborhood. The building itself carries foster and partner’s typical design strategy of using efficient and sustainable design.

Welcomed by a four-storey atrium, the open and generous floor plates of the city hall is wrapped in floor-to-ceiling glass walls, illuminating the vast space with natural light. this creates a visual connection between the interior and the adjacent park whilst encouraging a sense of community and communication between departments. The construction techniques are influenced by the sub-tropical climate, from the careful choice of materials to the composition of each façade. Externally, the flowing roof canopy, supported by individual pillars is a distinct feature- the wave-like roof overhangs providing shade for the public areas underneath. The building is the first in argentina to receive the environmental LEED silver standard award for sustainability and the first civic project in the country by the acclaimed practice.

The 1000-square-foot floating pod-shaped home measures 12 meters in diameter and 4 meters tall. Its curved body is constructed from recycled glued laminated timber and a recycled aluminum hull. The rounded wooden roof is topped by a 60-square-meter photovoltaic array capable of generating 4 kWp. Four skylights flank both sides of the photovoltaic array. Large windows and balconies wrap around the unit to allow users to enjoy views of the water.

International expositions have long pushed boundaries in design and engineering, and will be the case with the 2015 Expo Milano in May and 147 countries worldwide will share culture through construction in the form of innovative pavilions and installations. Representatives from the U.S. Pavilion—titled American Food 2.0 and aims to discuss the global food supply chain—recently shared a behind-the-scenes look at one of the architectural features: a smart-glass roof canopy.

The application seeks to align with the expo’s broader theme—“Feed the Planet, Energy for Life”—by functioning as a digital interface that encourages visitor interaction. The canopy comprises 312 glass panels, each measuring 3.3 feet by 9.8 feet, and totals roughly 10,000 square feet in area. The nonprofit representing the pavilion, Friends of the U.S. Pavilion Milano 2015, says that this application will be the largest smart-glass roof structure to date, with the panels planned to transition in seconds from opaque to transparent states in response to environmental conditions as well as prompts from visitors via a touchscreen.

Belatchew Architects have won an architectural competition for a new building in Stockholm, Sweden. The HagaTwist building will serve as a meeting place for those who live in, work in, and visit the area, and will accommodate a restaurant and a rooftop terrace.

The name- the HagaTwist- alludes to its twisted shape, but also to the program, that combines work with pleasure, the individual with the collective. The HagaTwist also refers to the DNA helix, since the area has a life science theme.

The lightweight structure is in wood, turning smoothly from one floor to the other, through a wide and inviting multi-functional staircase connecting the main floor with the upper floor and roof terrace in a seamless way.

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